


Gold Digger

by baeberiibungh



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: AU, Dialogue Heavy, Divorce, M/M, Marriage, Non-Graphic Violence, Psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Wooing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:02:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22280773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeberiibungh/pseuds/baeberiibungh
Summary: Everyone knows Will Graham is a Gold Digger…
Relationships: Francis Dolarhyde/Will Graham, Matthew Brown/Will Graham, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham/Mason Verger
Comments: 25
Kudos: 150





	1. Chapter 1

“Mr. Graham. Please step into the office.”

“So said the spider to the fly,” muttered Will under his breath, not knowing that Hannibal could hear him perfectly.

“I read somewhere that the fly made a throne of the web in the end.”

“Oh. Um. You weren’t supposed to hear that,” uttered a rapidly blushing Will. 

“Never you mind young Will. I have heard worse both inside and outside this room,” Hannibal defelcted deftly.

“Right. Well. Thank you for seeing me Dr. Lecter.”

“Please, call me Hannibal. All my other patients do,” Hannibal lied perfectly.

“Oh. Ok. Hannibal then. You have a beautiful office.”

“Thank you ever so much for saying so. I feel it has the minimal amount of personality so that my patients are not intimidated by my office. Please take a seat right there.”

Will sat down in the sofa Hannibal had directed him to. It was plush and a deep purple. 

Will was still looking around, admiring the art on the walls. The slant of the light coming through the window to put a rather melodramatic effect on the room. The slope of the drawing table that stood at the corner of the office. 

Hannibal hmmed lightly to get Will’s attention. Will immediately turned to him. Hannibal smiled at the young man. Will smiled a small smile back. 

“So, Mr. Graham, what brings you to me?”

“Will please. If you are to be Hannibal.”

“Will.”

“I, hm, I have been having some problem with myself.”

“Perhaps the though of your third marriage?”

“Ah, you know me,” Will said with dejection.

“I know of you. Its not everyday that the same man can get into a relationships with the three most richest men in the city, one among the world’s richest at that.”

“So that makes me the gold digger everyone accuses me of being?”

“I didn’t say that. But I must say you have a sort of quality that attracted all three to you like a moth.”

“I didn’t start any one of those.”

“I believe you. You are a beautiful man. People will always be attracted to you. Some presumably from the first sight itself.”

Will scoffed at that. 

“Well, how may i help you today?”

Will looked a little lost at the question. As if he didn’t want to answer it or knew how. He took a deep breath, slid to the front of his seat and said, “It’s about my fiance.”

“Please go on. You have my full confidence of secrecy.”

“I. I just seem to, just attract certain kind of people more. My first husband Francis and second husband Mason were not quite, quite conventional if you know what I mean.”

“I do not understand. Please elaborate.”

Will suddenly made a snarl, baring his teeth and raking his hand through his disheveled curls. His eyes behind the glasses were lost and small and confused, but also angry for some reason. 

“I. They all. All of them loved me, love me, I know this, but they all are also, also,..”

“Have they been physically abusive to you?”

“No. Not at all. Nothing physical. Very passionate yes, but no, no physical abuse.”

Hannibal leaned forward, mimicking Will and how he sat. Oh he was interested in what Will had to say. 

“What then is the problem you are encountering?”

“I think there is something wrong with me. I fall for people that are ultimately bad for me. Or I make them worse in some ways. I do not understand it. They had love me, were devoted to me, but things would turn just not right.”

“Could you perhaps explain in some detail if you feel like it?”

Will looked to the door he had come in as if expecting his previous husbands to come bursting through. 

No one came through.

Will wiped his face with his hand and slumped back into the seat. Hannibal tilted back as well, letting Will experience the wider space he was clearly craving.

“Francis was the sweetest guy when I met him first. Shy and timid but so so kind. The kind to give lifts to people in the rain and pickup strangers on strange roads. That is how we met you know. I was thumbing for a ride one day, hitchhiking to get some gas for my car which had stranded in the middle of nowhere in the heat and Francis stopped for me. I didn’t even know him, just took him to be a rich guy doing his good deed for the year seeing his car. He stopped and bundled me in and offered me a towel and some chocolate and i was a bit smitten.”

Will continued, “He showed up to the office next day, waiting in the sunny car parking with a bunch of flowers that had wilted by the time I got out and saw him. He was so sorry with how wilted they were. I, I consoled him with a kiss to his cheek and he was so happy. He used to have a bisected lip. Had to go to lots of speech therapy even after it was repaired in his childhood. He was very conscious of how he spoke. Hated if anyone waited for him to finish explicitly. Very sweet man.”

“We were together for two years before we got married. It was a shotgun wedding. We eloped. And then something began to deteriorate in him. He became insanely jealous and suspicious of people. He would swear to me that people were laughing at him and we would be in a restaurant and no one would be looking but he would become very agitated. Then he began to threaten random people and nothing I said would help him. That is when he ended up in that institution. That is also where he met Reba,” Will ended.

“The current Mrs. Dorlarhyde.”

Will smiled sadly. He said, “It was like the light that I had extinguished in him just grew again. Oh he remained faithful to me for the duration of marriage, but his love for Reba grew than what he had for me. Reba gave him the selfless confidence I was not able to provide. So one day I just sat him down and asked straightaway if he would like a divorce. He cried and cried and asked for my forgiveness because he had fallen in love with Reba. I immediately called for the lawyer and had the papers met. I was still in love with him, but he was not mine anyway.”

“I had signed a pre-nup for the marriage, under the guidance of the Dolarhyde’s family lawyer. I wanted to waive it during the divorce proceedings. Francis refused it under any circumstances. Said it was my money, worth my time and love that I had spent on him. My worth to him I suppose. But he was in love and I didn’t want to put a damper in his life. So I took the money, quite a big amount coming from the estate and society papers got a hold of the story. Reba was introduced into the public life quite late. So I became the gold digger. In it only to earn it.”

“I have met them, the Dolarhydes. They make a lovely pair. You could hardly tell Mrs. Dolarhyde is blind in the pictures, she carries such grace. Isn’t she expecting?” Hannibal asked in a curious voice.

Will looked sad again. “Francis called me that day and asked me to be the baby’s godfather. I hope I can do the child justice in coming years.”

“Will. You are too kind.”

“Francis is too kind. I cannot be not in return. And he had wanted a family of his own from the start. I though with me it would end up in adoption. But I know him. Knew him. He wanted his own blood. After the death of his parents and grandmother, he was quite inconsolable for months. I can do nothing but wish him well now. He is worthy of it.”

Hannibal hmmed again. Even ke hadn’t known that Reba had been in Dolarhyde’s life while Will was still in his and he was privy to the best gossip in the county. What a kind and generous soul Will has. And to think he had almost believed the gossip pages that had dragged Will through hell and back, making him step down from his post at his workplace due to the throng of reporters that would give him no peace. Freddie Lounds was most vicious in her assertions of the morals and character of Will. 

Will shrugged his head in a what will you have gesture. 

“I met Mason at a house party. Francis was married by then. They were having a dog competition. I was slowly welcome at my friends again, and a few people and acquaintances I had picked up while with Francis. Dr. Alana Bloom had been a favourite of mine. She was gorgeous and very knowledgeable. Her wife Margot Verger introduced me to her brother. I charmed him that day Mason used to tell me oftentimes. After Francis I was wary of moving too fast but Mason won me over. He was smart, very intelligent and quite sharp.

“I had a proper marriage this time. Ring bearers and flower girls, all the embellishments. Alana stood as my best woman while Margot stood as the best woman for her brother. Oh the honeymoon phase lasted very long. I signed a pre-nup again, this time at my insistence. Mason allowed an even larger amount than Francis had but I paid no mind. I was happy and looking to a long future with Mason in his quaint little pig farm. There were obviously people to look after the farm, but I was totally charmed by the aesthetics.”

“Then six months into the marriage, at a family gathering, Margot made a joke about carrying our child before Mason and its like he changed in a heartbeat. He was furious, screamed at Margot and Alana and threatened to cut Margot from the family fortune. I was aghast at his treatment of his family. They only had each other to call family, both orphans like me by then. I stepped in to save the argument and the venom he spewed at me left me speechless. The things he said. The names he called all three of us. I was openly sobbing by the end of his tirade.”

“After that day, it became clear that things have changed abundantly. Mason became angry and scoffed at every attempt I made to clear things up. The matter that most rankled him, as he told me multiple times, was that I had sided with them against Mason. That I was willing to let Margot get away with her dehumanizing joke. I hadn’t told Mason about Francis and Reba yet as they were not out. But yes,he was correct. I did want the chance Margot had provided to give a family to Mason, her brother. He would not listen to my explanations.”

“Two months later I presented him the divorce papers and he did not even pause to sign them. I sobbed for days in Margot and Alana’s arm. They tried to speak for me but it did not help my case or theirs. I was heartbroken. Devastated. Just beyond consoling. I thought that I was forever doomed to failure in my love life, with only money to show in the bank for it. I still keep in contact with Alana and Margo and hear that Mason has become a recluse. Of course the fault was shown to be mine and mine alone for the sake of money.”

Will took a drink of the glass placed near him at some point by Hannibal. He looked tired and as if he might start crying. Hannibal felt emotion in his heart that he could not explain. To be so willingly sacrificed for others, what material was Will Graham made of?

“And now?” Hannibal could not refrain from asking.

“Now three years later,I am engaged to be married to Matthew Brown. Another heir apparent. Just my luck, huh?” Will chuckled dryly.


	2. Chapter 2

Hannibal picked up the phone, just minutes after Will had stepped out after his third session with Hannibal. He still carried a lot of hurt with what had happened with Dolarhyde and the Verger mess. He was full of worries and stress that he would meet the same fate with his current fiance Matthew. He was afraid that he would cause Matthew to become different as well. There was no problem with Matthew except perhaps his too much passionate love for Will. Matthew was a man who loved all at once, from the depth of his soul, almost frenzied with it.

“Hannibal,” Jack Crawford’s voice came over the phone after five rings.

“Jack, hello. How are you doing?” Hannibal asked.

“Quit the bullshit. Just tell me what you want.”

“Manners now, Jack, manners. I want all the good stuff there is on one Matthew Brown, of the Browns of Baltimore.”

“Don’t tell me you are going to make him disappear him too.”

“I will of course be coming over to take the papers myself from the police station,” Hannibal said ignoring Jack and what he had said. If things worked according to plan, Brown would disappear himself from Will’s life.

“Have you finally gone insane Hannibal? You can’t just waltz in what have you like you own this place. This is an institution of the law. I will have either Price or Zeller or even Katz hand you the papers in some secluded corner like you always prefer.”

“That is not what I had said.”

“You know, you are full of bull. I don't understand why I even stand you to be anywhere you can communicate with me. You should be in a prison. With a straitjacket on.”

“How is Bella, Jack?”

No sound for a minute before Jack said in a furious whisper, “Come and take your papers tomorrow evening from my office.”

“Always a pleasure doing business with you as usual Jack,” Hannibal smiled into his phone. He could almost feel the urge Jack was feeling to slam the phone down or cut the line before Hannibal was done talking. But that lesson had been learned before and Jack did not cut the phone till hanibal put his down. An excellent piece of work done. Now to have a fantastic meal to celebrate this new path he was embarking on. 

The next evening, Hannibal sauntered into Jack Crawford’s office, as if he owned the position and the station, and in a way he did. In his hand was a lunch packed neatly into a bowl with lid on. He walked in and handed the container to Jack, which Jack accepted grudgingly. 

“I went through the material. There is not anything other than what you would expect from him. Some DUIs, a few run in with law over destruction of public and private property, two cases of stalking the wrong girl, and excessive expenses. No overtly violent history but there could be. Have been in bar and restaurant altercations. Again, nothing you can’t expect from someone like him with lots of money and not as much sense,” Jack turned to face Hannibal to take a sudden step back. A spasm of fear passed his face as Hannibal merely followed him, standing way too close.

“Jack. Dear Jack. Did I tell you to go through them?”

Jack took an audible gulp before saying, “I was just trying to summarize the things for your benefit.”

“It was not benefiting Jack. It was in fact most unbenefiting. Did you forget to colour between the lines now Jack?”

“No, I. I am sorry.”

“You really ought to be. What would poor Bella think if she ever saw the photos?”

“Hannibal,” Jack said, before becoming silent, not knowing what to say. Before he could indeed attempt anything, Katz shoved her head through the door and called out, “Jack, the meeting is about to start.”

“Ah yes. Yes. I will be a minute. Go take your seats.”

Beverly swept an inquiring gaze over Hannibal, both secretly revolted and fascinated. Jack looked almost constipated and feeble before the man now standing and facing her directly. She could also feel a sense of danger emanating from the unknown man, who she had never seen before. She took a moment to stare back and withdrew her head from the room. What a strange looking man.both exotic and beautiful, but some creeping ugliness under neath it all, like a disease. She had an instinct about things like this and she did not make the mistake to ignore it. The man was dangerous, no question about it.

When Jack joined the team to review a new case, Jack looked more composed, but his eyes kept darting to Beverly as if he were ashamed of how he had looked in his room. But Beverly understood. A poisonous snake will make mincemeat of any strong man if close enough to strike and the man had looked capable of striking with ruthless accuracy. She tried to convey that she will not say anything to anyone through her eyes but was not sure how much of it got across. The meeting felt stilted and awkward and Beverly made the decision to never walk into the room when the man was there.

On reaching home, he went through the file minutely. What Jack said was near the truth. No great threat from Matthew, but he couldn’t take a chance now, could he. 

He found the numbers he was looking for and made a cryptic call to the man himself. “They know,” he said. “You know what to do.” He cut the line and immediately broke the cheap mobile into bits. 

Five days later, Will came for his appointment looking harried and unhappy and really depressed. Hannibal made pained noise at what the man looked like and offered him a glass of water, and when that was rejected, a glass of fine wine, which was readily accepted.

“Matthew is missing,” Will blurted out. “Or at least he is avoiding me. He is not accepting my calls, not returning my messages, and when I went to his home, I was turned back at the door. He is avoiding me Hannibal. Nothing happened and he has already changed. This is my worst nightmare ever. What the hell am I to do? My fiace has gone no contact on me and there is nothing I can do,” said Will wiping angrily at the tears that had sprung onto his eyes as he told his tale of woe.

“Would you rather me be your psychiatrist right now or your friend?” Hannibal asked. 

Will looked up then, his eyes still watery and he said, “I could do with a friend better.”

“Very well. But it is my duty as your psychiatrist to point out that just because he is not responding to you right now, something aweful is not about to happen. Circumstances may be stepping in somehow. You are giving into your previous fears that you already hold and are imaging the worst outcome possible because you are situated to do so. You have to have a bit more faith in yourself and trust your relationship. Whatever is happening may resolve itself out in the end and Matthew will come back to you.”

“And what do you say as a friend?” asked Will.

“Maybe this is for the best. Whatever change you imagine or are really taking place is doing so before the marriage itself. It is giving you time to reflect if you are indeed making the correct decision. It could in fact even be divine intervention. You were about to start the previous cycles again, while due to no fault of yours, and will always remain convinced that you took the wrong step. As a friend I have come to know how much you abhor bad manners and Matthew is behaving very badly. What if he continues to do the same after you get married?”

Will put his hands over his face and let out a sob. He whimpered, “I cannot go through a third divorce Hannibal, I cannot, I cannot.”

“So don’t marry him at all. He is obviously not right for you. You are a wonderful man and he is taking advantage of it, willingly and with intent. You must persevere, Will. Breaking it off with him will not be the end of your life, but could be the start of something new. Matthew is proving himself wrong and you know it. You need to take the right step in the correct direction. Think about it. Please Will, I beg you, don’t make a mistake for the sake of convention, something you will regret for your whole life.”

“I. I need to think Hannibal. I have to think now. I.. have to go. I will talk with you later. Goodbye Hannibal.”

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“Yeah, I, yes, I know. I know. But I need to think and make decisions now. See you later.”

Five minutes after Will had left, someone knocked the entry door violently. Hannibal slipped his tiny scapel up his sleeve and went to open the door. A fuming Matthew Brown stormed in, swiping his eyes at everything with a sneer. 

“I know its you who called me. Did you think that breaking your mobile wouldn’t give me your exact location, huh? You are a pathetic man, trying to turn Will against me. What kind of a psychiatrist are you, you area blot on your profession,you…”

Matthew halted in the middle of his tirade because a film had started rolling. The quality was grainy but he knew the person in the middle. How could he not recognise himself? The dog had whined and the horse had kicked out with its hind leg. The images were superimposed on Hannibal as he stood immovable in the middle of the room, making him look like a demon or the devil himself. Matthew sagged and looked at Hannibal with fearful eyes. Hannibal was expressionless. 

“How did you get this?” Matthew asked faintly.

“I have my ways.”

Matthew looked on in devastating fascination, his face slack and heart beating a mile a dozen. He looked to Hannibal again and this time he saw something. Something both inexplicable and easily explainable. 

“You want Will.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Everyone wants Will. You were just under the impression that you could have him.”

“You will never have him. Will will never allow it.”

“That’s for me to find out now, isn’t it? Do think how his face will crumple when he sees this. His dear Matthew indulging in such debauchery. It would break his bird like heart. I suggest you let him go if you have even one ounce of self preservation,” Hannibal said. 

“Right into your arms huh?” Matthew asked.

“Why yes of course,” Hannibal said pleasantly. 

“Never. I will never allow Will to fall for such a psychopath.”

“And here I was thinking we could do this amicably.” And then suddenly Matthew was gurgling and choking. Blood pouring through the sudden hole in his throat as a few drops fell from Hannibal’s scalpel onto the ground. Matthew stepped forward and fell down. Hannibal gave a big sigh. “What a pity. The carpet was my favourite.”

Two days later a disheveled Will opened the his house’s door to him, eyes red from crying and in his boxers. Hannibal licked his lips as if in the sight of a luxuriant meal. In his hand there was another lunch container, much more elaborate than the one he had given to Jack. 

“Will, I am so sorry to hear the news.”

It was as if the floodgates had opened as Will began to sob violently against Hannibal’s chest. They stood there for the better part of an hour, Hannibal wrapped around Will, saving him from the cold wind outside. 

Will sniffled miserably and wiped his nose and eyes on his hands. “I am sorry I cried all over you.”

“You are hurt, completely understandable. Here, I brought something for you to eat.”

Will took the full containers from Hannibal and walked inside still sniffling.

Hannibal followed just behind as he planned to for the foreseeable future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wholly unbetaed. English is not my first language so excuse if i messed up some expression. Thank you for reading this.

**Author's Note:**

> Please give kudos and comments please, thank you.


End file.
